It's hard as a young person of a different ethnicity or background to look at the TV and not see anyone who looks like you. Representation is very important.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
As young people, you want to see people who in some way look like you to some degree, because it makes it a little easier for you to aspire to take on the qualities of those people.
I started working in television quite young, actually, and I definitely felt very insecure about what I looked like.
There aren't as many roles for people who look like me, and it was always complicated when it came to casting my parents. But now I couldn't be more grateful that I have a different look.
I didn't see a lot of women who looked like me on TV when I was growing up.
The mass audience doesn't want to see you if you aren't perfect. If you don't look a certain way, if you don't have big pecs and great skin and the perfect eyes. And it's unfortunate, because kids are growing up with body image dysmorphia because not everyone is represented on the screen.
When I was in school, you never saw anyone who looked like us that was on TV. And that was really weird for me because there's so many people of South Asian descent in America - in the world.
People tell me that my appearance in real life is better than on-screen. Perhaps people think I am exactly like the characters I play on TV.
In some cases, the casting directors have casted blindly and have not looked into my ethnic background.
The tricky thing becomes: Do you know yourself well enough to then portray that on screen? And for me, I find that really hard. I'd rather hide behind accents and funny walks.
I think looks do matter on television.
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